Eternity
by Ten-Faced
Summary: A book signing, waves, a pebble, and memories. - friendship, young!Shinichi/Masumi.
1. Chapter 1

A fic I've been planning for some time, around the head canon that Masumi met Shinichi some time ago . . . which was confirmed by the release of Files 844~846.

Of course, Gosho will pull a MOTHY (Vocaloid reference for those who get it) and then come up with something that completely counters it, but humour me.

* * *

Masumi scowled as the larger boy tried to cut in front of her place in line. "Hey! No budging!" she said indignantly.

"Shuddup, punk," the boy growled, and pushed her down with both hands. She stumbled, nearly dropping the book she had bought.

Shu-nii was there in an instant. "If you have a problem with my little sister," he said softly, helping her up. "I'd be glad to talk to you."

The boy, now considerably intimidated by Shu-nii, backed up. "No problems, and it's fine, and. . . and. . .That kid's a girl?" he said in disbelief.

Masumi dusted herself off. At least her book was safe. She had dragged Shu-nii to the bookstore on this day, exactly at this time because there would be a book signing session by the author of her favorite books, the Night Baron Series. She hated the very idea of presenting a damaged book to the author to sign.

"Hey," a serious but young voice called at her side. She glanced over to see a boy around her age standing there, hands shoved carelessly in his pockets. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Masumi patted the book. "And so is my book. Are you here to get your book signed too?"

The boy shook his head. He had a bit of a cowlick, but other than that, not a single lock of hair was out of place on his head. "The author's my dad," he said with a hint of pride in his voice. "I'm just here to make sure he doesn't run off to solve a crime again."

"Oh," Masumi glanced at Shu-nii, who had finished talking to the other boy and was now seemingly engrossed in a book on America's war on drugs. It was probably something about either the FBI or the CIA. Her brother liked those. "Does that happen often?"

"Yes," the boy deadpanned. "Far too much. He should have just been a detective. But no, he decides he wants to write instead of fighting crime."

Masumi tightened her grip on her book. "Well, I think it's good he writes," she decided. "Because people like his stories very much."

Kudo Yusaku's son paused. "That's true; he _is_ a best-selling author. Still," he added, obviously wanting to get the last say. "He should have been a detective. The police are always calling him in for help when he's in Japan, but they're stuck when he's away. When I grow up I'm going to be a detective and stick around so that I can always solve cases."

Masumi didn't really want to lose. "I'm going to be a detective, too," she decided, right then and there.

A few boys in her class had once laughed when she had announced her desire to be a police officer. They had teased her, saying that she couldn't be a police officer even if she looked so boyish, because in the end she was nothing but a weak girl.

The boy didn't do that. "Well good luck, because I'm going to be a better one."

She couldn't help but to smile at that, feeling her sharper double tooth lightly scratch her lip. "Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Masumi," her brother's voice was amused as he finally interrupted their conversation. "The line's moving."

Her future detective rival glanced at the clock. "Gotta go! See you, detective girl!"

She waved good-bye, and stepped forward one spot in line.


	2. Chapter 2

Planning a Shuichi-centered fic.

* * *

A few days later after the book signing, Masumi ran into the boy again, this time at the beach. "Get off me-" she began, but then she recognized that familiar hairstyle. "Hey, you're Kudo-san's son!"

He stopped rubbing his head and looked closely at her. "And you're the detective girl!"

Next to him, a girl stood with a displeased look and crossed arms. "Shinichi, you're such a klutz! You knocked her soda over!"

The girl stuck her tongue out at him, and then helped her up. "Are you alright?" she asked, clearly concerned. "I'm sorry for Shinichi. He's a deduction freak who can't even see the front of his feet properly."

"Hey!"

Masumi felt rather forgotten as she watched the two of them go off into their own world, their arguments drawing examples and references from the lives she didn't know and wasn't a part of. She shuffled on her feet and waited for them to stop.

Shinichi stopped first. "Hey, I never got your name last time. I'm Shinichi, and this is Ran."

"Masumi. Nice to meet you."

Ran blinked, looking at her and then him and then back to her before settling on him at last. "You two know each other?"

"We met at my dad's book signing."

"Oh," Ran gave her a slightly sad smile. It was like she was disappointed or something. "Well, would you like to play with us?"

She was at a beach with her parents – who were both busy reading – and her brother wasn't here. She was bored, her leg was sticky from soda spilt on it, and she had nothing to do.

"Sure."


	3. Chapter 3

"What was that you said about a lot of crimes happening near your dad?" Masumi asked Shinichi as the three of them watched a lifeguard desperately trying to revive a girl.

"What crime?" Ran asked in a slightly-too loud voice and the son of her current favourite author winced. A few people looked for the source of the surprising words but only turned away once more after seeing that it was a child who had spoken. "What crime?" she asked a bit more quietly so only the three of them could hear her voice.

The boy who wanted to be a detective looked around. Realizing half a second later that the path of a detective was something she wanted to go down as well, Masumi began to look at the scene rather than simply see. How would the characters of the Night Baron see this? Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple and all those other detective stories were on her to-read list for the summer, yes, but she had only skimmed through some of them.

Before she could draw a conclusion though, the boy had already finished his assessment. She was a bit taken aback at his speed. Surprised, and slightly envious too. "It's just an accident," he said. Masumi would have sworn that there was actual disappointment in his voice.

He wanted to get practice for his future career. Well, it wasn't a bad idea. In fact, if she wanted to be a detective catching bad guys it was an idea that she should be taking up herself.

The three of them walked away as the paramedics came and began to load the revived woman into the ambulance.


	4. Chapter 4

Three days. Exactly three days since she had decided that she wanted to be a detective after meeting the son of her favourite author in a bookstore and she was currently going through the biggest adventure of her life.

No, she did not enjoy this adventure. Yes, this adventure would probably end up killing her, since the main source of the excitement came from a guy with a knife chasing them into an all-too convenient and clichéd cave at the side of the beach. Turned out that the girl nearly drowning _had_ been a crime with full intentions to kill and the man with the intentions _had_ overheard Ran asking about a crime.

He hadn't even heard Shinichi claiming it was just an accident. Nope, hadn't heard that part at all. The guy had only paid attention to the little girl wondering aloud if this could have been a crime. That was, after all, what every naïve person who watched television would wonder, if real life had drama to that extent. Everyone except him, because he was one hundred percent guilty and couldn't leave any loose strands behind. Even if they happened to be kids that no one would believe.

(Except maybe Kudo-san and her brother, but they were special people.)

Masumi could sum this guy up in two words; Paranoid freak.

Despite all the brave thoughts she was trying to think, Masumi was scared. Very, very scared. Her palms were sweating fiercely and she wished that Shuu-nii was here to be like one of those FBI guys he was always reading about. She wished that the man would trip and end up stabbing himself. She wished that she was big and strong and knew Jeet Kune Do _really_ well like her big brother, not just enough to have the teacher praise her.

While the man went wandering down the far side of the room, Shinichi leaned in to speak into both of their ears. His mouth brushed slightly against her ear and it tickled. Masumi resisted the urge to smack his head and tell him to be careful because that would have been, as her brother called it, suicide. "I'll distract him," he said in a voice so light and soft she struggled to hear it. "You two run."

Ran hissed almost involuntarily and at that moment the man turned to the direction of their flimsy cover, eyes almost wild with paranoia.

Masumi wasn't sure if it had been because of Ran's accidental response or if he was just trying to be thorough. What she did know for sure was that he had seen them. "Run!"

All three of them scattered, each weaving across the rocky, dark floor like mad cockroaches. From behind her a rock the size of her fist flew and directly hit the man on his eye. He dropped his knife and howled in pain.

The three of them ran towards the light at the opening and Masumi could hear the waves splashing against the rocks.

* * *

When I saw that pregnant lady in 851, my first reaction was to wail, because I thought she was Masumi's mom.

Then it turned out that it was just Vermouth and Bourbon at the side, so all is well. Sort of. My head canon that Shuichi is Masumi's half-brother still stands and that's what matters.

Then I saw Yumi's love interest, and Haibara's guess on the seven he was collecting. The Seven Deadly Sins.

COLLECTING all seven deadly sins. Just like Mothy's series is all about. And the fact that Ai's personality is similar to Elluka Clockworker's . . . Hello, crossover idea.


	5. Chapter 5

Things went south.

The man, ignoring the pain in his eye, stumbled after them with one hand clasped firmly over his wound, his fear of being discovered as the attempted murderer of the girl fuelling his movements as he frantically ran towards them.

His longer legs quickly closed the distance between him and them and caught Ran. Ran, the innocent young girl whose only mistake had been to follow her future detective friend and ask if the 'accident' on the beach had been a crime out loud near his vicinity. Ran, who screamed when the man wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her up into the air, preventing her from running away. She struggled and lashed out as much as she could but the man only tightened his arm around her. "Get back here!" he yelled, the coward. "Get back here or she dies!"

Obviously he wasn't bluffing. He had, after all, planned to kill the girl and three random kids.

Within a split second Masumi's mind went into full internal conflict. Did she stay behind and try to kick the man in the painful part every man had? She had once accidently kicked Shuu-nii in that spot and he had curled up into a ball for some time with tears in his eyes. After he recovered he had given her a strict talk on how this kind of kick should only be reserved for bad guys and she had never kicked someone in that spot since.

This man was most certainly a bad guy. That justified it if she kicked him, right? Her older brother – the person she looked up to the most – had told her it was alright.

But her older brother had also told her to not be a foolish hero in a dangerous situation and save herself no matter what, a part of her mind replied. Kicking someone male in their 'balls' was something he called a 'self-defense last resort'. _"There are other times when you have to kick a man there,"_ he had added after ruffling her hair. _"But you won't learn about it today."_

He was definitely a bad guy. That was a given fact. Now, did any of the circumstances that he promised to teach her about one day apply here?

Hard to figure that out if she didn't know the exceptional conditions. So she was left with self-defence.

_She wasn't in his grasp so really, it wasn't _justified_-_

_But Ran was a friend and she was in danger-_

_She'd only known the girl for what, an hour? Not a _friend_-_

_Well she certainly liked Ran and if she _really_ stretched the meaning of 'self'-_

Shinichi clearly didn't have such internal conflict. When he heard Ran's desperate screams he simply changed his direction and ran towards the man. Masumi winced, the conflict actually getting worse. What was she supposed to _do_?

"Run!" he yelled at her as he turned, seeing her hesitate at his choice. "Get help! I'll hold him off!"

Masumi felt like a coward as she ran out onto the beach and into the sunlight, screaming her head off for help (Shuu-nii had also told her to do that before kicking someone in the sore spot).


	6. Chapter 6

After the unlucky incident where she was chased by a near-murderer (or someone with every intent on murdering innocent bystanders in cold blood, which was worse) and her new friends were taken hostage Masumi was glad to see some luck come her way.

The first piece of luck was the presence of police officers and detectives at the beach. Someone had realized, somewhere along the ride to the hospital, that this had been no minor accident and had called them down. When they saw a little girl screaming bloody murder as she ran out of a cave, they were instantly there. The man – coward – surrendered immediately at the sight of handcuffs, uniforms, guns and flashlights all pointed at him. The yelling and cursing that came from one particular inspector helped with that, too. Both Ran and Shinichi were whisked away into an ambulance, because apparently after catching Shinichi the two of them had struggled so much the man had hit them on their heads. Hard.

A paramedic assured everyone at the scene that they'd make it.

The second piece of good fortune was her brother. He was next to her while the police officer asked her questions, silently holding her hand and gnawing on a lollipop stick like it was a cigarette. He told her she was brave after she finished her story. When her parents finally noticed – after she'd been 'missing' for an hour – that their daughter was at the center of the whole action-movie kind of thing happening on the beach, he gave them both a withering look that silenced their stammered excuses.

"We're going home," he said to her quietly after he finished silently scolding their parents with what she had dubbed his 'disapproving look'.

"Can I say good-bye to my friends?"

Shu-nii nodded.

Unfortunately, this was where her luck ended. The paramedic wouldn't let her see her friends even after her older brother had given her permission. "They need rest," the man insisted. "And anyways, they're going to go to the hospital right now."

She was ready to argue and kick and scream in order to see Shinichi and Ran again, to tell the two of them – especially Shinichi, even though it had been him who had told her to run and get out of there – that she was sorry about running away instead of helping, but her father was there at her side now. "C'mon, Masumi," he said, scooping her up. She scowled a bit. Her dad's hands were always a bit rough and painful, unlike her older brother's. "They don't need someone bothering them."

Great, so she was a bother.

Still, she could see the rare wisdom in his words. With a sigh, she nodded and let herself be carried away to the car by the man who still had no idea that his grasp on her hurt too much.

Maybe they'd see each other again one day. Not unlikely, because she and Shinichi were going to be detectives when they grew up. Eventually they'd chase the same big case and meet again someday.

Inside the car, as she strapped on the seatbelt, Masumi noticed a lump in her pocket. She dug her hands in there and found a small pebble.

Huh. Must have fallen in there while they'd been hiding in the cave.

Masumi put it back in the pocket to keep as a souvenir.

* * *

Complete. Should I post a bonus chapter?


End file.
